Wearin' of the green

I know I'm a little late for a St. Patrick's reference, but you can't help but be overwhelmed by the greenness of everything around here lately. It's amazing what somewhat regular rainfall can do!

Not only was the Guadalupe at an almost perfect level last Saturday, thanks to rains earlier in the week, but the foliage of all kinds was almost blindingly green. I'll wager that scene of the Zoeller Lane bridge above hardly ever has such colorful framing greenery.

(And a few minutes after the photo above was taken we saw our Dear Leader, unable to join us on the river today, watching our little caravan pass under the bridge. Now, that's dedication!)

There's also more moss than I usually remember seeing on these cypress, isn't there?

I know moss isn't green, but it's still pretty photogenic

Of course, for me, the foliage of the trees, even when unseasonably colorful, is never the whole story of how wonderful these old friends are. Just look at the intricate weaving of this cypress' roots:

...could a sculptor have fashioned anything more whimsical and intriguing?!

And it's always interesting, if somewhat sobering, to see evidence of the recent high water, like this debris pile choking the outlet of a small creek...

...or here where the debris and a tree that's leaning precariously over the water courteously left just enough room for us to slide through...

Evidence of floods long past is also all around us on these paddles. Like these eroded limestone shelves; I know I've shown you countless photos of this kind of feature, but every time I see them I can't help snapping more shots.

And from a rather cataclysmic event, as opposed to a slower eroding, here's a block that must have disconnected from its mother cliff not too long ago, judging by the light, unweathered color of both the block and its former resting place. 

Geology [almost, fortunately!] in action

We had a little rain the last half of our trip, but nothing too heavy. Although all our clothes and gear was soaked and it's taken a while for it to dry out, given this very unusual wet weather pattern we've been experiencing. But we'll take it, if it leads to more fun, green, paddles like this one.

Wordless Wednesday: back to church

It's getting real...

...retirement, that is.

What once seemed comfortably in the future has all of a sudden moved to just around the corner. In fact, in a few days I'll have single digit workdays left!

And I've had not one, but two fine retirement parties...so I guess it must really be happening. The lovely flowers shown above are from the university-wide celebration for all the retiring faculty. It was very nice, and in addition to getting to take home some of the floral decorations, I was given this wonderful watercolor by Bro. Cletus Behlman, the University's talented and prolific artist in residence:

It shows the distinctive main administration building and is now proudly on display in our downstairs powder room, where we've had another of his paintings for some time.

But a more special party was thrown by my wonderful colleagues on Friday. Look at these great decorations (and decorative eats)—a perfect sendoff for a government information librarian.

Here's a closeup of the cake, "painted" by our own cake-artist-in-residence:

Even the cupcakes sported stars and bars!

We had to have the party now since several of my co-workers will be on vacation the rest of the

month, but I'll be working thru May 31.

I have a lot of old emails and documents to sort through, I need to do some final tidying-up of our tangible collection, and I want to go over my research guides again to catch anything that needs updating.

Since they are not replacing my position, my work is being divided up among several of my colleagues, and I want to leave things as shipshape-and-Bristol-fashion for them as I can.

That's the least I can do for this group of friends who went to so much trouble for this great party!

Strike up the band(s)!

As many years as I've lived in San Antonio, and as many Fiestas as I've lived through, how odd is it that I'd never attended one of the the highlights of this city-wide party. One that is even within walking distance of my house!

Well, I can tell you that my stroll over to the Band Festival a couple of weeks ago won't be my last. What a delightful evening's entertainment!

The photo at the top of the post shows almost all of the over 5,000 kids in position for the grand finale, which sounded as amazing as it looks. But the individual performances that preceded this gargantuan play-along were fun to watch and hear, too. 

(And we had a gorgeous night for the festivities, too!)

High school bands from all over the area, from some San Antonio mega-schools to some nearby mini-ones, they were all dressed to the nines and in fine tune. One of the participating schools is our local one, Alamo Heights...

Heights, along with most of the other bands, just marched by the crowd, stopped and played a song, then marched on around the track. But some award-winning bands performed their special routines, including these kids from Thomas Jefferson...

The whole affair was started off with some showy parachuting from these Army guys and gals:

Then, a combination of a couple of schools' bands, an all-star trumpet group, and all of the flag teams joined up for not only the national anthem but the Texas state song, too (which I can remember about half of the words to).

Then we settled back into our very reasonably-priced seat and enjoyed the parade of bands and other performances. What a great event! Next year it's on my Fiesta schedule for sure.

as if the bands weren't enough...

It's the water!

Our last outing in Washington before heading our separate ways was a delightful one. We met the whole fam for dinner at the Falls Terrace in Tumwater, near Olympia.

Seeing everybody one last time before departure was treat enough, but as a bonus my group arrived early and had time to explore this lovely park adjacent to the restaurant.

The picture above is of the Deschutes River flowing under its very handsome bridges downstream from the falls.

The restaurant has a great view of the river and falls, as you can see here, in this shot taken from the other side of the stream...

...but it was nothing compared to what we were able to see on our little walk around the area...

the whole upper falls

another look at that bridge, this time with rhododendrons as a bonus

both falls

In this part of the country, you've got to take spawning salmon into account, and they did that here via the salmon ladders under these metal walkways—hearing the roaring water under your feet as you walked along them was rather exciting!

salmon walkways from across the river

Being in this somewhat quirky corner of the country, it wasn't too surprising to find some quirky decorations around here, too. 

"love locks" on a fence next to the upper falls

And, there was also historical significance. This site was where the first Americans settled on Puget Sound (the Brits were here before) in 1845... as we learned from this plaque (click to enlarge so you can read it):

There's even more history here. The buildings on the other side of the river from the restaurant are the site of the original Olympia Brewing Company, famous for its water (and the slogan that I appropriated for my post title)...

it does look like water that would make great beer, doesn't it?

I remember in my youth being told that Olympia (along with Coors, which you could only buy in Colorado in those days) was a really first class brew. And we were  right where the picture for the original label was set, as this informational sign told us:

The brewery's somewhere else now, but the water, and the falls, are still here and still first class in the scenery department...

A beautiful spot to use as a farewell to this fantastic part of our country. But we'll be back!

Wordless Wednesday: Garbo talks!

Paradise for trees

The Pacific Northwest is not only good for flowers, but it must be a perfect ecosystem for trees. 

We learned this a couple of years ago during our redwoods trip in northern California. But the idea was strongly reinforced by our recent time in Washington.

So tall, so lush, so enormous in every dimension—take a look at this typical specimen in a Centralia playground...

Hal couldn't resist trying to climb...
handily providing scale for me in the process

Here's a gallery of photos that just skims the surface of the amazing arboreal scenery on offer in the greater Seattle area...

can you imagine having this as the vacant lot next door?
my nephew and new niece do!

another look at that Centralia playground

looking up from the playground equipment

this amazing specimen is in the Centralia Square park

dads and kids on a hike in Centralia

another look at the trail in Centralia...with our point kid

As I found to be true in the redwood forests, the micro-views are as interesting as the macros in these wonderful spaces...

bark closeup masquerading as abstract art

mossy trunks hollow at the base, on our hike in Centralia

we couldn't decide if these were tree seedlings or some other kind of plant altogether

Then, there are other ways in which woody biota is in use around here...both commercially...

...and artistically...

a delightful maze at the Olympia childrens' museum

Yes, a paradise for tree-lovers as well as the trees themselves!